Apple – AAPL Stock Gets Slapped With Downgrade

AAPL stock is down over 1% Thursday morning

Apple (AAPL) was downgraded from “outperform” to “market perform” by Wells Fargo (WFC) analyst Maynard Um, and AAPL stock responded by dipping more than 1% in early Thursday trading.

Um says that the ‘outperform’ prediction was based on “the expectation for gross margin (GM) expansion driven by the 5S cycle.” The analyst also believes that phone carriers might have more power than phone makers in 2014 due to the lower prices offered by carriers.

Apple and other smartphone makers charge about $400 per smartphone whereas carriers charge around $250. However, Um believes that Apple stock could benefit from the release of the iWatch, iBeacons, iPhone 6 and a bigger dividend/buyback plan.